History Main / AndroclesLion

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Roger apparently raised a wolf from when it was a cub and released it in the wild, and later, finds a wolf while he's stranded with the family in the middle of a desert ([[spoiler:which is owned by Stan's cousin]]). [[SubvertedTrope It's not the]] [[HilarityEnsues same wolf]].

* Early in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', Leon Kennedy encounters a dog caught in a bear trap. If the player has him free the dog, it returns later to help Leon fight his battle against the first "El Gigante" boss by distracting the monster.
** The ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' continues this. In chapter 3, you will encounter a wolf trapped in one of the bear traps you passed earlier. When you reach the El Gigante boss fight in chapter 4, it shows up and repeatedly distracts and attacks the El Gigante. After the fight, it will spend the rest of its time chilling on a rock and relaxing.

* This trope is how [[AuthorAvatar Adam]] [[PteroSoarer Squall]] is introduced to the namesake family of ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheGaleforces,'' specifically after Sarah frees him from [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture's]] MindControlDevice. While it's true that all of the family members are humans, Adam is the only PrehistoricMonster[[OneWingedAngel -turned-]][[HumanityEnsues human]] protagonist.

** In another episode, friend-of-the-day earthbender Haru saves a villager from a rockslide. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished The villager promptly turns him into the Fire Nation.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld''[=/=]''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'' crossover event, Geralt comes across roots that have trapped and killed several Pukei-Pukei. If he finds and rescues the one that's still alive, it will later jump in during the final battle with the Leshen and help him.

* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'': When Mercedes fights Belial the dragon and spares his life, showing him compassion and kindness after his long period of slavery, he is deeply moved. When Beldor tries to sic him on her later in the story, the dragon repays the favor by resisting his commands until the pain causes him to pass out.

* ''LightNovel/TheTestamentOfSisterNewDevil'': At one point, Zest feeds and pets a stray baby unicorn. Later, when Zest gets knocked out and about to be trampled, the unicorn goes to her and licks her face to wake her up, allowing her to roll out of the way.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': Diego the ''[[PantheraAwesome Smilodon]]'' does a HeelFaceTurn after his soon-to-be TrueCompanions save him from falling into lava. Granted, most characters were animals, but Diego was the only carnivore protagonist.

* ''Literature/AesopssFable'': The TropeNamer is an old roman fable about the slave Androcles (sometimes [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Androclus]]) who earns the friendship of a lion by removing a thorn from its paw.

* The TropeNamer is an old roman fable about the slave Androcles (sometimes [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Androclus]]) who earns the friendship of a lion by removing a thorn from its paw.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pussboots/stories/donpear.html Don Joseph Pear,]]'' the hero spares the fox's life when he catches it stealing, and it plays a ChessmasterSidekick role for him.

* In ''Frog-Princess'' while on his quest to free the imprisoned princess from evil Koshey, Tsarevich Ivan captures various animals for food but releases them when they beg for their lives and promise to do him a favor in return. They later help him to obtain Koshey's SoulJar.
* In ''Golden Antelope'' a boy helps all kinds of animals, getting transportation, guidance, protection, and even fundraising in return.
* In ''Golden Fish'' an old fisherman catches the magical Fish who promises to grant his wishes in exchange for freedom. It doesn't work out, because the old man is a HenpeckedHusband, and his wife is too greedy for her own good, but the Fish was keeping its end of the bargain as long as was reasonably possible.

* In a tale about a frog princess, the hero successively spares a bear, a rabbit, a duck, and a pike, and gets help from each of them at the end of the story to get BigBad Koschei the Deathless' SoulJar: The bear tears down the tree, the hare kills the hare, the duck strikes the duck, and the pike retrieves the egg from the pond it had fallen into.
* One of the most frequent plotlines in the entirety of ancient folklore, to judge by the number of times it pops up in ''Grimm's Tales'' and other sources. Typically, while on his way to rescue the princess, the hero assists several small critters in succession; later, when the villain places seemingly-impossible tasks in his way, the grateful critters return to complete them for him (for instance, when charged with sorting an enormous heap of mixed grains, the hero of one tale is helped by the ants he'd rescued.) It can be guaranteed to work if someone else (preferably an older sibling) ignores the metaphorical lion first.

-->'''Prince:''' If it were not for you, I should long ago have been dead.
-->'''Servant:''' And if not for you, I too should long ago have been dead. For I am the golden-headed fish.

* A similar story tells of how King Solomon was stung by a bee once and wanted to kill it, but it asked him to spare her so she'd help him someday. King Solomon reacted the same as David. Later, when the Queen of Sheba came over to test King Solomon's famous wisdom, she asked him to pick the real flower out of three―the other two were impeccably fabricated. The King was stumped when the bee came over and sat on the real flower. [[note]]One may think "[[FridgeLogic So apparently the bee gave her life for the hell of it and made a heroic sacrifice to make amends.]] [[MST3KMantra Ah well.]]" That is, until they remember that [[FridgeBrilliance it could have been a queen bee or a bumblebee, either of which can actually sting multiple times without dying.]][[/note]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Many of Ash's Pokémon tend to be acquired in this fashion. As well, there's Ash's Charizard, who was completely disobedient until Ash saved its life, again.

* Deliberately referenced in the opening two-parter of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', with Fluttershy and a (very lion-like) Manticore, resulting from Fluttershy's special connection with animals.
** And then with Rarity and the flamboyant river serpent who happened to be sentient.

* A darker variant happens in ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' which serves as a nod to the original story: [[BigBad Van Kleiss]] is sent back in time and one of the many stops on his journey back to the present is in ancient Rome during the Severan Dynasty, where he is captured and turned into a slave to fight in the Coliseum. To earn his freedom and an audience with the Emperor during a match, he grabs an attacking Lion and infuses it with Nanites to transform it into a three-mouthed Minotaur-like EVO that would serve as his faithful bodyguard while in Rome. When Van Kleiss went into stasis again, he told the beast to ''"Go start a few Legends."''

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the player comes across a dog and a wastelander fighting some raiders in a junkyard. The wastelander always dies, but if the dog is saved it becomes a useful companion.

-->'''Awbee''': "''You saved me once, now i am here to return the favor!''"

* ''Manga/WelcomeToDemonSchoolIrumaKun''" The titular hero Iruma is a human who after being sold to an elder demon by his greedy, selfish, abusive parents, is now going to school in the demon world. His status as human is kept secret from most everyone in the cast. At Babyls School, one of the first tests first years endure for rank evaluation is a Flying Test with paths either through Cutthroat Valley or Warbling Valley. Due to a series of events, Iruma, who lacks any wings, ends up in the nest of a bus-sized demonic bird with a deep gash on its leg. After Iruma intentionally injures himself to help demonstrate empathy for the creature [[spoiler:a single drop of his blood enters the wound and it completely heals it. The bird recognizes that Iruma did something to mend it, becomes grateful, and carries Iruma to its parent, the boss of Cutthroat Valley and a truly gigantic demonic creature. This is fortunate as the parent is in the middle of fighting and overwhelming Sabnock, one of Iruma's classmates, in its rage over the injured child and Sabnock invading its territory. The boss is grateful as well to Iruma's actions and as thanks carries both to the end of the race]].

* In ''LightNovel/DrugstoreInAnotherWorld'', the protagonist Reiji Kirio is tasked with subduing the ''Kodora'', a dragon-subspecies. It was the guardian of the local forest but for some reason is going on a dangerous rampage, threatening the local ecosystem and all the villagers who rely on it for their livelihood both. After Reiji uses his alchemy skills to learn the ''Kodora'' was poisoned and subsequently cured it, the ''Kodora'' regularly gifts him rare, valuable ''rokushou'' fruits as thanks.

[[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs For your safety]], however, please note that this is ''not'' TruthInTelevision. The vast majority of animals are simply not intelligent enough to grasp the ethical concepts involved in this sort of thing. In fact, most won't even be able to realize that you're trying to help them, and will instead associate you with whatever situation they're in, and lash out at you. And even if you're dealing with one of the rare handful of animals that ''are'' intelligent enough to both understand that you helped them and be thankful for it, those animals are by that very fact also intelligent enough for different individuals to have different personalities, so even then there's a chance that the particular individual you saved happens to be too much of a {{Jerkass}} to ''care.'' [[DoNotTryThisAtHome Unless you are a trained professional]], [[PunctuatedForEmphasis DO. NOT. APPROACH. WILD. ANIMALS. THAT. ARE. IN. DISTRESS.]] Instead, contact a wildlife rescue immediately.

* ''Manga/WelcomeToDemonSchoolIrumaKun''" The titular hero Iruma is a human who after being sold to an elder demon by his greedy, selfish, abusive parents, is now going to school in the demon world. His status as human is kept secret from most everyone in the cast. At Babyls School, one of the first tests first years endure for rank evaluation is a Flying Test with paths either through Cutthroat Valley or Warbling Valley. Due to a series of events, Iruma, who lacks any wings, ends up in the nest of a bus-sized demonic bird with a deep gash on its leg. After Iruma intentionally injures himself to help demonstrate empathy for the creature [[spoiler:a single drop of his blood enters the wound and it completely heals it. The bird recognizes that Iruma did something to mend it, and becomes grateful and carries Iruma to its parent, the boss of Cutthroat Valley and a truly gigantic demonic creature. This is fortunate as the parent is in the middle of fighting and overwhelming Sabnock, one of Iruma's classmates, in its rage over the injured child and Sabnock invading its territory. The boss is grateful as well to Iruma's actions and as thanks carries both to the end of the race]].

* ''ComicBook/StarWarsInvasion'': In Issue 2, Finn, Lowbacca and the Solo kids are attacked by a tuk'ata when they encroach on its cave. During the confrontation, Jacen notes a piece of wood embedded in its side and, when the beast is distracted attacking someone else, he darts in to remove it. The tuk'ata largely calms down after this, and retreats back into its lair.

* In ''Frog-Princess'' while on his quest to free the imprisoned princess from evil Koshey, Tsarevich Ivan captures various animals for food but releases them when they beg for their lives and promise to do him a favor in return. They later help him to obtains Koshey's SoulJar.

* A traditional tale of the Kamba people from Kenya tells the story of a man who cultivated a field. The crops attracted gazelles so he set traps to defend his crops. One day he saw a lion had fallen in one of the traps. He freed the lion after making him promise that he would not hurt him. Once free, however, [[TheFarmerAndTheViper the lion]] [[ILied attacked him]]. Then the man convinced the lion to let him go after promising that he would give him the heart of every animal that fell in his traps from then on. One day his wife accidentally fell on one of the traps, and just as the man ran to free her the lion appeared and demanded the wife's heart as part of their agreement. The man refused, saying that this wasn't part of the deal, so the lion killed the wife and badly injured the man. Moral of the story: [[SubvertedTrope Don't trust lions]]. [[DeconstructorFleet They fucking eat people]].
* In "Literature/PrinceIvanTheWitchBabyAndTheLittleSisterOfTheSun", Prince Ivan uses the gifts of the Sister of the Sun to prolong the lives of the lives of two kind giants whom he met during his travels. In return, both giants put obstacles in the witch's way when she is chasing after him.
* A ''Literature/{{Panchatantra}}'' story has a traveller come across a well in a jungle, inside which are trapped a tiger, monkey, snake, and man (a goldsmith). He helps out the four of them, who swear to repay the debt someday. Some time later, as he is crossing a mountain, he comes across a tiger which, to his surprise, does not attack him. He recognises the tiger to be the one he helped out of the well, and in return she feeds him and gives him a golden necklace from her den. On the way to the capital city, he is waylaid in a forest by bandits who tie him up, take his valuables, and set up camp there for the night. The monkey, who lives in the forest, comes to know about this and comes to the traveller's rescue. He throws away the bandits' weapons, restores to the traveller his valuables, and frightens the bandits away by summoning his friends, who throw rocks and stones at the bandits. The traveller then makes it to the city where he meets the goldsmith and asks him to appraise the necklace given by the tiger. The goldsmith recognises the necklace as one owned by the missing princess of the kingdom, and upon learning that the tiger was the one who had the necklace, deduces that the tiger must have killed and eaten the princess. [[AllTakeAndNoGive In the only subversion of this trope]], the goldsmith goes to the king with the necklace and falsely accuses the traveller of having killed the princess and stolen her jewellery, and collects the reward for this information. The king has the traveller locked up and scheduled for execution. In his jail cell, he hears a whispering noise and looks up to see the snake he helped out of the well in the jungle. The snake, having heard everything, gives the traveller an herb with instructions on how to use it. The snake then bites the king's mother, who becomes gravely ill and cannot be cured by the kingdom's best physicians. While the king is grieving in his chambers, the snake enters and whispers to the king that he only who was wrongfully imprisoned can cure the king's mother. Intrigued and desperate, the king summons the traveller, who uses the herb to relieve the queen mother's illness and explains his side of the story to the king, who locks up/executes (depending on the version) the goldsmith for his perjury and avarice. The moral of the story is that while this trope is well and good to note in fiction or with animals, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished it is unrealistic to expect fellow humans to repay kindness with kindness]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/22707499/chapters/60245656#workskin Poisoned Blood]]'', when the heroes encounter the Hydra (who for some reason is named Noodles and speaks in [[WebOriginal/{{Lolcats}} LOLCats]]) and prepare to attack, but Percy, due to his uncanny ability to understand and speak to monsters, recognizes that it doesn't want to fight and convinces Annabeth and Grover to stand down. The Hydra is so grateful that the heroes spared it and rubbed its head and belly that it gives them money from its secret stash, which the strapped for cash heroes really need.

* In ''Animation/TheFrogPrincess'', each one of the animals that was spared or helped by Ivan ends up helping him in his quest and fight against Koschei.

* ''Film/Godzilla2014'', Ford Brody has a downplayed example with Godzilla. After saving the saurian kaiju from getting double teamed by the [=MUTO=] couple to get him a breather, Godzilla saves Ford from the female [=MUTO=] trying to kill him twice. While Godzilla might have done one or both saves indicentally, his sapience and locking eyes with Ford between the events implies some of it was intentional.

* DoubleSubversion in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle''. Despite Harold's protests, the titular pair picks up a hitchhiker that turns out to be Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, [[AdamWesting borderline crazy from drugs]], who ends up stealing their car, which only adds on to the problems they were already facing trying to get to White Castle. In the end, when they finally arrive at White Castle, Harold realizes he has no money (he was unknowingly robbed), so Neil, who's also there, pays for their meal.

* In ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'', Zia and Franklin, along with Claire and Owen, helps treat the raptor Blue's injuries and gives her a blood transfusion. Later, [[spoiler:when Zia and Franklin are about to be attacked by a mercenary threatening to tase them with a cattle prod]], Zia opens Blue's cage. Blue seems to remember them and acknowledges Zia and Franklin [[spoiler:before attacking the mercenary in front of them]].

* The storybook, ''The Selfish' Crocodile has the crocodile in pain midway in the story. A mouse removes the tooth out of the crocodile's mouth. In return, the crocodile loses his selfishness. He even rewards the mouse with a nut for getting rid of the bad tooth.

* Subverted in the Chinese short story ''The Story of the Zhung-Shan Wolf'' by Ma Zhung-Shi: the wolf pleads a scholar to conceal him from a hunting party, promising to be grateful afterwards. When the hunters are gone, the wolf reveals its true nature and threatens to devour the scholar. Luckily, an old wise-man passes by and tricks the wolf, which the scholar then kills.

** In one of the El-ahrairah stories (The Story of King Fur-Rocious) in ''Tales of Watership Down'', on his quest to win a nearly hopeless war against the titular King, El-ahrairah befriends a cat (who jumps into his ear), saves a flock of crows (who also jump into his ear), helps out a nest of ants (into the ear again), and even enlists the help of a river (the other ear, this time). This pays off when, on three consecutive nights, El-ahrairah challenges the King and is shut up with the Rabid Rats (taken care of by the cat), the Wildcat Weasels (killed by the crows), and the Savage Stoats (chased off by the ant nest). The ''fourth'' night, King Fur-Rocious decides to have El-ahrairah tied up next to his sleeping place so he can figure out what's going on. For his pains, he eats the full might of the river, and promptly leaves thereafter. That was the only war El-ahrairah ever fought, and that was how he won it. Question: [[{{Hammerspace}} How big]] are his ears, anyway?! They ''are'' woven from starlight.

* Doubling as a BrickJoke, an episode of ''Series/CornerGas'' has Oscar buying mousetraps to kill a mouse that had been seen at the gas station. Davis is against this, admitting to being somewhat of an animal lover and fondly recalling a time that he took care of an injured owl until it was healthy enough to fly again. At the end of the episode, Davis has finally worn Oscar down and convinced him to capture the mouse alive and release it into the wild. They let it go in a field... [[SubvertedTrope and what is implied to be the same owl immediately swoops down to snatch it up for food]].

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Referenced in an episode, when JD removes a splinter from the Janitor's toe (though he mixes it up slightly with the story of the mouse and the lion). When JD tries telling it, the Janitor cheerfully cuts him off with "Oh, right, and then the lion kills him anyway." Funnily, the Janitor does try to repay JD with unwanted help, causing JD to waste the favor by asking the Janitor to do something trivial. The Janitor notes afterward that JD could have asked to not be hassled for a year.

* An example involving a {{kaiju}} occurs in ''Series/UltramanLeo'', when Rolan, a friendly, peaceful avia monster, was injured by an arrow in her paw, until a helpful local mechanic assists her by pulling the arrow out. Rolan ends up assuming a humanoid form (as a beautiful woman) and become friends with the mechanic, but this only leads to more problems when Alien Magma - the ruthless alien who injured Rolan in the first place - comes back to finish her off.

* There is a story that says that when [[Literature/TheBible when King David was on the run from King Saul]], he went to hide in a cave, where he saw a spider he was going to kill, before the spider stopped him, saying he'd help him somehow. King David laughed but spared it anyway. The spider spun a web around the cave's opening, so when King Saul came by the cave, he said there is probably no-one in there, as they'd have to tear through the cobweb to get in. He left, and King David blessed the spider.

* A similar story tells of how King Solomon was stung by a bee once and wanted to kill it, but it asked him to spare her so she'd help him some day. King Solomon reacted the same as David. Later, when the Queen of Sheba came over to test King Solomon's famous wisdom, she asked him to pick the real flower out of three―the other two were impeccably fabricated. The King was stumped when the bee came over and sat on the real flower. [[note]]One may think "[[FridgeLogic So apparently the bee gave her life for the hell of it and made a heroic sacrifice to make amends.]] [[MST3KMantra Ah well.]]" That is, until they remember that [[FridgeBrilliance it could have been a queen bee or a bumblebee, either which can actually sting multiple times without dying.]][[/note]]

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', if you're not playing as the Human Noble you can recruit the mabari warhound party member by doing a side-quest in Ostagar, which involves finding a cure for a mabari that's been infected by the darkspawn taint. The dog will appear in a special encounter on your way to Lothering and join your party. Justified, in that mabari are intelligent enough to count as an UpliftedAnimal.

* ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'': Fiona frees the dog, Hewie, near the beginning of the game, after he's been tied up. Hewie returns by fending off Debilitas a few minutes later, and subsequently accompanies Fiona through the rest of the game.

** An army of ants Graham saves from a dog which was digging up their anthill. They later find a literal needle in a haystack for him.

* ''VideoGame/PinkPantherHokusPokusPink'': After Pink helps a shark in Indonesia get his tail and finns back, the Shark repays the favor by giving Pink rides to 2 nearby islands.

** Inverted and then played straight during Liam's escorting mission, as the monster that acts as the stage boss pleads for its life and offers a "treasure" to Ark if he lets it go. The treasure chest is a booby trap, but before the monster could catch Ark off guard, Liam kills it offscreen and then guides Ark back to the safety of the lion den, where his kin welcome Ark as one of them.

* In the 5e ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' stream ''WebVideo/{{TheUnexpectables}}'', the party encounters a crab holding a knife. While the DM, Monty, was certain that the crab would meet his demise, the party instead befriended him and was able to retrieve the knife for some Northlanders nearby. A few sessions later, the crab returns, named Crabbius the Mighty, and vouches for the party when confronted by a storm giant. Crabbius returns once more in episode 68 to save the party after they had been tossed in a channel by the hyper-religous United Clergy of Orun.

** And few years earlier this happened with ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther''. A man pulls a nail off of the Panther's foot and he becomes his slave. The man was annoyed at first but found helpful when he realized that he can use him to scare his shrewd wife and her mother. After many attempts at getting rid of the pink cat, the wife gives up and decides to leave home... [[spoiler:only for the Panther to step on another nail, with the wife pulling it out of his foot. Again, you can guess what happens next.]]

** In one episode, the gaang befriends a WellIntentionedExtremist bandit named Jet, who at one point tries to rob an innocent old man but is prevented from doing so by Sokka. Later in the episode, Jet tries to destroy a village by breaking open a dam and flooding it; Sokka goes to the village and tries to warn them to evacuate, but no-one believes him until the old man from earlier speaks up on Sokka's behalf.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuhs 2 and 3 adopt a baby skunk. Although Numbuh 1 doesn't like this, it ends up helping them in their mission to infiltrate a camp, and even makes a TomatoSurprise cameo in another episode two seasons later.

** The mother dragon comes back in a later episode, helping He-Man again when a crisis happens that requires him to tranverse Eternia faster than Battle Cat can handle. Fortunately, she can fly ''much'' faster than any landbound mount can. (Unfortunately, she can't swim, the one thing that still made He-Man's job hard.)

* A version of this happens in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ''Roman Legion-hare''. After chasing Bugs Bunny through the lion cages beneath the Colosseum and in the process infuriating all the lions (and being comically mauled a few times), Captain of the Guard Yosemite Sam throws Bugs into the arena so that Nero can watch a victim be eaten. Instead, the lions rush past Bugs, jump up the stands, and go after Sam and Nero. Its thanks to Bugs providing them with the tools needed to dismantle Sam's stilts beforehand.

** In "The Fat And The Furriest", Homer gets attacked by a bear at the dump. Later, after he makes the anti-bear armor, he realizes why the bear was so agressive: the tracking tag on it's ear is faulty and gives anyone wearing it painful electric shocks, causing constant agony. When Homer removes it, the bear becomes friendly to him and they strike up a friendship. Homer ends up saving the bear from hunters by leading it to a wildlife sanctuary.
** Inverted in "Bart Gets An Elephant": when Bart wins an elephant named Stampy in a radio phone-in contest, Homer quickly finds that's he's too expensive for the family to keep and tries to recoup his losses by selling Stampy to an ivory dealer. However, when he falls into the Springfield tar pits and Stampy rescues him, he decides to donate Stampy to a wildlife preserve instead.

* In the "Commander [=McBragg=]" segment of ''WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales'', [=McBragg=] has a story like this, and it's one of the few times he has actual evidence to prove it. According to him, he is captured by "stange men" after his plane crashes in a remote valley, and left as a HumanSacrifice to appease a giant who is angry. [=McBragg=] quickly discovers that a thorn is lodged in the giant's foot and that he's not angry, but in pain; so he dislodges the thorn, gaining the giant's friendship. (The proof? A large, metal ring that the giant gave him from his little finger, which [=McBragg=] now uses as a hula-hoop.)

* Subverted (and double subverted) in a classic joke. A man saves an elephant with a thorn in its foot. The elephant takes a long look at the man and then hurries off. Some years later, the man sees the elephant in a local circus. Since elephants never forget, the man decides to enter into the elephant's enclosure to comfort his old friend the elephant. He is promptly crushed to death (or, in some versions, simply thrown out of the enclosure), at which point the narrator usually points out that [[ShaggyDogStory it was probably not the same elephant]].

* The ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'' mission that sporked this particular fanfic does not directly feature this trope, but another PrehistoricMonster character, the villainous human-hating [[RaptorAttack Velociripper]], was accidentally brought to the PPC in the aftermath of the mission. Ripper would go on to pull a HeelFaceTurn in a later mission, cast aside his anti-human grudge, and become a close friend of the [[AuthorAvatar newest persona]] of his author,

* In Creator/ChretienDeTroyes' ''Yvain, the Knight of the Lion'', Yvain helps a lion fight a giant serpent. The grateful feline then follows Yvain, saving his butt quite a few times.

* Inverted in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders''. [[spoiler: Iggy, a Boston Terrier, saves a human boy's life from the guard falcon who'd killed and eaten his two dogs. Later, after defeating the falcon, Iggy nearly drowns from exhaustion and blood loss as a result of the fight, only to be saved by the same boy he'd protected earlier.]]

* ''Manga/NatsumesBookOfFriends'': An extremely powerful Youkai jumps to Natsume's defence against an evil Ayakashi because Natsume helped him earlier in the episode. This is a pretty big reward considering all Natsume did was [[spoiler: cover up a puddle in the road so that his servants could pass despite the fact they could just as easily have ''walked around it''...]]
* [[HairRaisingHare The lapins]] in ''Manga/OnePiece''. During the Drum Island arc, Luffy pulls a mother lapin free from the snow after an avalanche. Later, the lapins protect Luffy from the attacking villains. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, while allowing Luffy to get his TrueCompanions to safety, they end up viciously beaten for their trouble.]]

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': Played darkly in the "Valley Forge, Valley Forge" arc. A group of soldiers have been tasked by to bring down Frank Castle, knowing [[WouldNotShootAGoodGuy he won't use deadly force against them]], by a cabal of corrupt U.S. generals. In the end, it turns out that [[spoiler: the Colonel tasked with leading the soldiers was once a soldier in Vietnam who had been rescued by Frank's Marine Recon squad]]. When the generals come around to view their "''prize''", they find [[spoiler: an untied Frank with a fully loaded 1911. You can guess what happens next.]] Mildly subverted in that [[spoiler:the Colonel covered up the corrupt generals' crimes in the process]][[note]]he outright declares that he won't have the armed forces' reputation sullied publicly, and explicitly refuses to use the evidence to publicly expose them[[/note]], and that [[spoiler:Frank Castle wanted them dead more than he wanted their crimes exposed.]] It turns out that [[spoiler:the Colonel wanted the Punisher ''stopped'', but the generals wanted the Punisher ''dead'' -- so the Colonel actually volunteered for the task to ensure the former]].

* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'': Ezekiel, the leader of the Kingdom has a pet tiger named Shiva, from the zoo he used to work at. He explains to Michonne that she was badly injured falling into a pit in her exhibit and would have died if Ezekiel hadn't helped her, getting slashed across the stomach in the process. Shiva never lashed out at Ezekiel again and is loyal to the point that [[spoiler: she sacrifices herself to save him from walkers]].

* In the short ''WesternAnimation/{{Sintel}}'', the title character rescues and befriends an injured baby dragon she calls Scales. Later, [[spoiler: adult]] Scales recognizes and hesitates to harm Sintel, [[spoiler: who doesn't recognize Scales and strikes her down.]]

* The Bandersnatch in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' helps Alice after she gives it back its disembodied eye, [[spoiler: by licking the scratch wounds it inflicted on Alice's arm earlier and healing it, lest it (quoth Cheshire Cat) "festers and putrefies". It later serves as her mount in the FinalBattle against the Jabberwock.]]

* Played for equal parts RuleOfFunny and {{squick}} in the ''Film/LandOfTheLost'' movie when Rick Marshall [[spoiler: is swallowed by "Grumpy" the exceptionally intelligent T-rex who's been chasing him for most of the movie. He later shows up to [[BigDamnHeroes rescue Will and Holly]] by [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome riding Grumpy into a pack of Sleestaks]]. It turns out that he... er... escaped through the back door, and in the process removed some intestinal blockage, for which Grumpy was very grateful.]]

* Deconstructed and subsequently defied in ''Film/{{Nope}}''. [[spoiler: Jupe tries to tame [[SpaceWhale Jean Jacket]] by feeding it horses from the Haywood siblings (who weren't aware of what he was doing with their horses). While Jupe is able to summon Jean Jacket, he's severely out of his depth, and when Jean Jacket accidentally eats a plastic horse, Jupe is consumed alongside his family and the audience at the Star Lasso Experience by an angry Jean Jacket.]]

** In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', Rey and her group are briefly attacked by a beast known as a Vexis snake in the underground tunnels of planet Pasaana. When Rey sees the creature is injured, however, she uses [[spoiler: her [[HealingHands Force-healing abilities]] on the snake's wounds. When the snake sees it's no longer wounded]], it calmly slithers away but not before opening an exit for our heroes with its tail.

* In Jean Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series, Ayla adopts a cave lion and raises it from a cub. Later on, after [[spoiler: the same cave lion kills Thonolan, she's able to calm it down and preventing it from killing Jondalar. Also, she saves the life of someone else in a similar fashion in the next book (same lion).]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}'', Yudhishtira makes it up the mountain to {{Heaven}} (and is indeed the only one of the Pandavas to do so), because he refused to leave behind a dog that followed him. [[spoiler: It turns out the dog is a reincarnation of his father, Dharma.]]

* Deadpan comic Jackie Vernon had a bit about this. A man is in the African jungle when he hears moaning and finds an elephant with a thorn in its foot. Very carefully he approaches and removes the thorn. The elephant tests its foot and goes away. ''Ten years later'' the man is in Madison Square Garden in NYC at the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus. During the entrance march of the elephants, one of the elephants stops in its tracks, looks across the arena at the man, and then breaks away and runs up to him, scattering everyone in its path. It stops in front of the man, reaches down with its trunk, raises him out of his seat, throws him on the ground, and steps on him, crushing him to death (in some other versions of the same joke, it simply throws him out of the enclosure instead)![[spoiler: "It was a different elephant."]]

* Subverted in ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': [[spoiler: as a student at Shiz, Elphaba (who will later become the Wicked Witch) rescues a lion cub from experimentation and frees it from its cage. This cub grows up to be the Cowardly Lion, who apparently holds Elphaba responsible for his cowardice and helps Dorothy and the Tin Man to hunt her down.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' DLC ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'', it is revealed that this is how the bond was formed between [[spoiler: Elizabeth and Songbird; she reattached its breathing hose as a young girl after it crashed into her tower and was damaged.]] Something similar is implied with the first pair-bond of a Big Daddy and two Little Sisters, when [[spoiler: the Sisters heal a Daddy by injecting it with ADAM, but in this case, it's the Sisters being the source of the ADAM that creates the biological link between them.]]
* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Clock Tower|1995}}'', Jennifer can rescue a crow from being imprisoned in the Barrows Mansion. It's the only way to achieve one of the better endings [[spoiler: when Mary tries to kill Jennifer at the top of the clock tower but is assaulted by a group of crows who cause her to fall to her death]]. They can also [[spoiler:attack Bobby (if he's chasing Jennifer) if he's led into the room where the original crow was freed.]]

** Early on, Ark helps Liam, a young lion cub, pass a test to descend into a valley of death and return alive. Later on, [[spoiler: after Beruga wipes out Neo-Tokio with a bio-weapon,]] a girl in the sewers is found being menaced by a lion. Guess who it is!

* In ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'', If Mike gives a bone to the wolf in the sanitarium, during his return visit it'll help guide him through and warn him when [[spoiler: the Wendigo's are attacking.]]

** And few years earlier this happened with ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther''. A man pulls a nail off of the Panther's foot and he becomes his slave. The man was annoyed at first but found helpful when he realized that he can use him to scare his shrewd wife and her mother. After many attempts at getting rid of the pink cat, the wife gives up and decides to leave home...[[spoiler: only for the Panther to step on another nail, with the wife pulling it out of his foot. Again, you can guess what happens next.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'', [[spoiler: Grace repairs some origami birds after Simon stomps on them. In return, they later save her from getting kicked off the train by Simon.]]